


Mount Justice Magicians

by Cynder2013



Series: Sisters by the Styx [4]
Category: The Kane Chronicles - Rick Riordan, The Sandman (Comics), Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Blood Magic, Elemental Magic, Gen, Magic-Users, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net, POV First Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-04
Updated: 2020-05-04
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:55:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 18,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24010918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cynder2013/pseuds/Cynder2013
Summary: Everything that happened was Sean's fault. Ending up on Earth-16? Sean. Getting on the wrong side of Batman? Also Sean. Having a self-centred god stuck in my head? You guessed it. Sean. Joining the "Young Justice" team? OK, that one was me. I'm blaming Sean for the flying monkeys though.(Originally started in February 2017.)
Series: Sisters by the Styx [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1719322
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	1. Sean Messes Up Big Time

_Brooklyn House_

_July 5 2015, 00:01 EDT_

I blame Sean for the whole thing. I’m not saying I wouldn’t thank him for it later, but the whole thing was still his fault.

I guess I should introduce myself. I’m Amber Banks, you probably know me as Sapphire’s sister. If you don’t, nice to meet you and thanks for proving that I don’t just meet demigods and magicians through my sister. (I’m assuming that you’re one or the other, because no one else would be able to read this. There’s this thing called “magic” that I’m sure you’ve heard of at least once.)

So, I’m writing this for you as a warning. You know, following in the footsteps of the Kanes and Percy Jackson. Standing on the shoulders of giants, that’s me.

Sapphire is reading this over my shoulder and telling me to get to the point. Whose story is this, sis? You’ve had at least three books worth already; you can let me tell my one at my own pace.

You’re supposed to learn something from this. That’s the only reason this is getting written down. I’m going to guess that it’s probably going to be not to travel to alternate universes because it will mess with your head.

If you are a demigod who hates reading English, feel free to stop reading now and go beat up training dummies.

Oh, and that timestamp up there? Don’t ask about it, I can’t tell you anything. I’m not allowed to. I said stop asking!

Alright, so the only thing that wasn’t really Sean’s fault was getting woken up at an ungodly minute of the morning by flying monkeys that one of the other family members had dreamed into existence. Brooklyn House was hosting a seminar thing for magicians that were interested in the Path of the Gods, and their family members of course. Sapphire thought that it would be a good idea for me to attend because of Montana.

We do not talk about Montana, so don’t ask.

While the entire nome was running around trying to capture the flying monkeys that someone’s half-brother had created while he was asleep, Sean Edgley decided that it was a great time for us to continue the pointless argument we’d been having the day before.

“Marvel is better.”

I swung a net that Shelby had summoned and just missed the monkey skimming his head. “DC is better,” I said automatically.

Yeah, it was a pointless argument.

The flying monkey that was dive bombing us pulled up the corners of its mouth and stuck its tongue out at us. I jumped to try to catch it and it flew out of the way, grinning.

“I hate monkeys!” one of the other family members shouted. 

It was disrespectful to our fellow primates (as Sapphire would say) but none of us could blame them. Heck, I was starting to hate monkeys at that point.

“Marvel has Squirrel Girl,” Sean argued as he chased after his own monkey.

“DC has the Justice League,” I shouted back.

“They have, like, _ten_ Justice Leagues! Couldn’t they think of a new name?”

“And how many groups of X-Men have there been? Don’t let it go out the door!”

The monkey Sean was chasing flew out the half-open door that just happened to lead to the roof. I groaned.

Sean just shrugged. “Freak will eat it.”

“I thought he was trained not to eat anything human-like,” I said flatly.

“It’s a flying monkey.”

“And we don’t know any humans that can fly?”

Sean opened and closed his mouth before running out the door after the monkey, leaving the door wide open for my monkey to fly through.

“Styx,” I cursed before following, remembering to close the door behind me unlike some people.

The monkeys were flying around the portal anchor, some piece of Ancient Egyptian rock that could be used to travel to anywhere there were pyramids or anything else that harkened back to Ancient Egypt. Sean had taken out his wand and was waving it alongside his net, using it to blast the monkeys with water. Freak, the resident gryphon, was screeching so loudly that I was surprised there weren’t any police cars in the street below.

One of the monkey agents of chaos dodged a lake’s worth of water and dived at my head. Sean followed it with his wand and I got a face full of water.

Sean and I stared at each other.

“Oops?” Sean said.

“Just get the stupid monkeys,” I grumbled.

The stupid monkeys were flying over our heads again, but this time they were pelting us with pine cones. I had no idea where they’d gotten them from. I think they were made of metal, because they hurt.

The monkeys backed us into the portal artifact with their projectiles. The wind picked up and blew sand into my face.

Sean said a spell in Ancient Egyptian, well, I assume it was a spell and not just the cussing we’d been doing for at least five minutes, and pointed his wand at the monkeys. The wind got even stronger.

“Was that supposed to happen?” I shouted.

“No,” Sean shouted back.

He looked up and his eyes went wide. I looked the same direction and saw the giant swirling sandstorm above us. A portal.

“That’s not good,” I decided.

“Nope,” Sean agreed.

Like the dignified magicians we are, we screamed as we were dragged in. 


	2. We Could Have Caused a Hurricane

_Washington, D.C._

_July 5 2010, 00:01 EDT_

I will deny that I was still screaming when we came out the other end of the portal, purely because it is very difficult to scream when you have a monkey stuck to your face.

“And who are they?” a boy asked.

I pulled the stunned monkey off my face and blinked at what I was seeing.

Sean groaned. “What did you do, Banks?”

“Excuse me?” I said. “Why do you assume I did something? You’re the magician!”

“Maybe because we’re in a room with Superboy, Robin, Aqualad and Kid Flash!” Sean shouted.

“Whoever they are, they got your name right,” Robin said to Kid Flash.

“There’s always a positive side,” Kid Flash said.

“Where did you come from?” Superboy asked.

“No time,” I said. “Sean, smash those pods.”

“What? Why?” Sean asked.

Because judging by the cloning pods Robin, Aqualad and Kid Flash were trapped in we really wanted to get out of there as fast as possible. I didn’t get the chance to say that because the doors behind Superboy opened. We were already out of time.

“More trespassers?” Dr. Desmond said, sounding bored. Apparently our monkey friend didn’t like his tone because it jumped out of my hands and went flying at his face with a shriek.

“Gah!” Desmond shouted, trying and failing to swat the monkey away. “What is this?”

Obviously it was a flying monkey. Duh.

“So, smash the pods?” Sean asked.

“Yup,” I said. 

Sean spun around and threw his wand like a boomerang. It passed through all three pods, turning the glass to dust before returning to his hand. Robin got himself completely freed about three seconds after that and went to work on Kid Flash’s restraints. 

“Guardian, take the weapon back to its pod,” Desmond ordered as best he could while still battling with the flying monkey that I had decided was less evil than I originally thought. 

“Why can he call Superboy ‘it’?” Kid Flash asked.

Sean didn’t give Guardian a chance to get close to Superboy. He went right in with his signature move and blasted him in the face with water.

Superboy was hesitating, looking between Guardian, Desmond and the sidekicks (who would hate being called ‘sidekicks’, but it’s easier than listing their names every time) so I went to try to free Aqualad. I can’t pick locks and I didn’t have my magician’s kit with me, so obviously that was going to go great.

“Superboy,” I said, “a little help, please?”

Superboy still hesitated. If I had been a little calmer I would have rolled my eyes.

“What would Superman do?” Aqualad asked.

Superboy got a determined look on his face. He came to the pod and ripped Aqualad’s restraints apart like they were made of paper.

“Time to go,” Kid Flash said as he jumped out of his pod. “You coming?” he asked Superboy.

Superboy nodded. He was real talkative, that guy.

“No one is going anywhere,” Desmond said.

He had somehow managed to shake the flying monkey, but his declaration was ruined when Superboy threw him into the wall.

“Sean, we’re leaving,” I said.

Sean had Guardian tied up with rope that he’d summoned from somewhere. He looked over at me and nodded before going back to catching his breath after all the magic he’d used.

We ran down the hall, Aqualad leading the way. “The elevator is this way,” he said.

We turned the corner and came face to face with an army of what I assumed were genomorphs as I was assuming that we had somehow been transported to DC’s Earth-16, also known as the _Young Justice_ universe. 

Stranger things have happened.

“That’s a problem,” Kid Flash said. “How do we get past them?”

“No problem,” Superboy said. He ran right at the genomorphs and started punching them.

“He’s going to have to work on that,” I muttered. “Sean, give me your staff.”

“Why?” he asked.

“Because I don’t have a weapon,” I snapped. 

I didn’t even have the net I’d been using to try to catch the monkey that was attacking the genomorphs with Superboy. It had gotten lost in the Duat somewhere, probably after I got a monkey stuck to my face.

Sean passed me a wooden rod that expanded into his alligator head topped staff. We followed the three sidekicks as they waded through the genomorphs, clearing our path with blasts of wind and…well it was mostly me so it was mostly wind, which was probably a good thing considering that Sean and I are not children of Poseidon.

Sean was still recharging after beating a superhero in a fight. That would be something for him to brag about, assuming we got out of her alive.

Aqualad pried open the elevator doors. Robin and Kid Flash were up the shaft in, well, in a flash thanks to Robin’s grapple gun. The flying monkey was seconds after them, probably sensing the moving air.

I turned back as I reached the elevator. Superboy was far behind, still fighting genomorphs.

“Superboy,” Aqualad said, “our goal is escape.”

Superboy threw aside one final genomorph before following after us.

“Wind,” Sean and I both ordered, using the air to propel ourselves up the elevator shaft.

Superboy let out a shout. If I was right about where we were, he had just discovered that he couldn’t fly.

With Robin’s warning we all just missed getting squashed flat by a falling elevator, which isn’t something I would recommend. The nearly getting squashed by an elevator part, not the not getting hit by an elevator part. Don’t get hit by elevators, it’s bad for your health.

Of course, more genomorphs were waiting for us. Superboy finally got his psychic messages from Dubbilex and led us to the dead end that happened to have an air vent. Crawling through the air ducts was all kinds of fun with a claustrophobic flying monkey but we eventually made it to the ground floor without anyone losing an eye.

“Would now be a good time to ask who you guys are?” Kid Flash asked me and Sean. “You know since we’re almost—”

“Don’t jinx it!” Sean and I exclaimed.

“—out,” Kid Mouth finished.

“Not quite, sidekicks!”

We turned around just in time to see Desmond empty a beaker into his mouth. He started shaking as the Blockbuster formula took hold.

I looked at Kid Flash. “You just had to say that.” 


	3. Batman Auditions for the Role of Nico di Angelo

_Washington, D.C._

_July 5 2010, 00:19 EDT_

I’m not going to describe Desmond’s transformation into Blockbuster. I know that being the monster fighting demigods and/or magicians you all are you’ve seen worse, but I still don’t want to make you lose your lunch.

Sean turned as pale as I felt. “Ew,” he said. 

That was a very good way to describe it.

The sidekicks and Superboy sprang into action at once, leaving me and Sean standing without a clue what was going on.

“I’ll hit him, you trip him?” Sean suggested.

I nodded. “And the monkey will scratch his eyes.”

“What?”

I pointed at Blockbuster, who was running around fending off attacks from the sidekicks and trying to dodge the flying monkey that was scratching at his eyes.

“And the monkey will scratch his eyes,” Sean agreed.

We tag-teamed Blockbuster after he had thrown Superboy head first into one of the pillars lining the entryway. Sean hit him in the back with blasts of water and I used earth magic to pull up stones for him to trip over.

Keeping Blockbuster at a distance was difficult. He was fast, really fast, or so strong that he was fast as a side effect. Fortunately, just like a certain bull-headed monster my sister’s cousin has killed twice, he had a hard time changing directions when he came charging at us. Ducking behind pillars was a pretty good way to dodge him, but only when he was a few metres away.

When I was ducking behind a pillar to avoid a very close call, I ran into Robin. Literally.

“Sorry,” I said quickly.

Robin grinned. “No problem. Can you help Kid Flash get Desmond to the middle of the hall?”

I nodded. “Definitely.”

I ran back out into the fray, where Kid Flash was busy doing what he was best at, mouthing off at bad guys.

“How do you keep tripping over nothing?” Kid Flash said as he ran around Blockbuster. “Your feet are right there.”

“I think he’s too tall to see his feet,” Sean suggested.

“That’s probably it,” Kid Flash said.

Blockbuster reached out as fast as he could and just missed closing his fist around Kid Flash. I say he just missed, but it was more like the distance between Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter.

“Can’t catch me, Blockblunder!”

I sent a blast of wind at Blockbuster’s back and he went tumbling forward several metres before he caught his balance.

“Sean, we’re gonna need a circle,” I said while Kid Flash was taking his turn being bait.

“On it,” Sean said.

Blockbuster let out a yell as Superboy ran into him from behind and he slipped on the puddle of water that Aqualad must have left in the middle of the hall. He fell and hit his head hard. Aqualad jumped out in front of him and send electricity into the water and through his body.

“Head’s up!” Robin warned.

The charges that he’d set on the pillars all exploded. Sean powered up his protective circle and the two of us and our monkey huddled inside it while the entire building collapsed on top of us.

Our monkey immediately started flying figure eights around the top of the circle, looking for a way out.

Sean gritted his teeth as he channeled more power into the circle. “You could have told me _this_ was what was going to happen.”

“I thought it was obvious. Do you need more power?”

Sean shook his head. “Not yet.”

That was encouraging.

“So, I think I know where we are,” I said after a few seconds.

“That’s nice. Do you know how we’re going to get home?”

I frowned. “Try a portal?” That was how we’d gotten to Earth-16 after all.

Sean shrugged. Our flying monkey dive bombed his head, shrieking in panic.

Sean ducked. “Hey! Relax, monkey!”

“We can’t keep calling the monkey “monkey”,” I said. “Monkey, your name is now Toto.”

The monkey stopped doing its frenzied flying routine and hovered above Sean’s head. Sean and Toto both blinked at me.

“What?” Sean said.

“We’re calling the monkey Toto,” I repeated. “Deal with it.”

Sean shook his head. “You sound like your sister.”

I’m the older twin. If anything, Sapphire sounds like me.

We didn’t get a chance to get into another argument, or for Toto to go into panic mode again, because the rubble shifted above us. We looked up and saw Superboy pushing aside the last chunks of concreate that were pressing against the bubble of Sean’s protective circle. Superboy, Kid Flash, Robin and Aqualad all looked surprised that we hadn’t been crushed to death.

Being crushed to death is also something that I would suggest you avoid. Take note, demigod or magician who attracts trouble.

“I think it’s safe to leave the circle now,” I said.

“Probably,” Sean agreed.

He stopped channelling power into the circle and, when we didn’t get crushed by an overlooked piece of the building, picked up his Sons of Horus statuettes and went with me and Toto to join Superboy and the sidekicks.

“Look, there’s the moon,” Kid Flash said to Superboy, pointing at the giant full moon above us.

A recognizable silhouette hovered in front of the moon with several others before the Man of Steel and the entire Earth-16 Justice League landed in front of us. Toto let out a yelp and hid behind Sean’s head.

“Oh, hey, and Superman,” Kid Flash said with a grin. “Do we keep our promises or what?”

Superman looked at Superboy. Superboy looked at Superman.

“One of you could say ‘hi’ or something,” I suggested.

Superman immediately looked at me and Sean. Batman did the same, though he was a lot less not mean about it. Seriously, you’d think he was the one with heat vision. His glare had nothing on a Child of Hades glare though, so Sean and I were practically unaffected.

Practically.

“Who are you?” Batman asked with his menacing voice-changing thing set to eleven.

“Superboy,” Superboy growled back. “Superman’s clone.”

“Clone?” Superman repeated.

Superboy just looked at him until Superman turned away. Superboy scowled.

“I’m Amber,” I said. “This is Sean and the monkey hiding behind his head is Toto. Nice to meet you.”

Batman turned his glare on the three soon-to-be-former sidekicks. “You disobeyed a direct order.”

“You’re treating us like kids,” Robin replied. “We wanted to prove that we can handle League level problems.”

“And we did,” Kid Flash said.

He looked around quickly at the destroyed building we were standing in. “Uh, sort of.”

“We discovered what was “wrong” with Cadmus,” Aqualad said.

“That’s great!” Green Arrow said.

Batman’s glare had Green Arrow quickly backtracking. “But that doesn’t excuse disobeying orders.”

“What are you going to do, ground us?” Kid Flash said. “We can walk away. We can walk away right now.”

Green Arrow frowned, probably remembering the loss of Speedy the day before.

“We’re tired of being treated like sidekicks,” Aqualad said. “Of not being trusted.”

Robin looked around at all six of us, plus Toto, and said, “We make a pretty good team.”

Superboy looked at Superman again. “So get on board or get out of our way.”


	4. We Spend Way Too Much Time Arguing

_Washington, D.C._

_July 5 2010, 00:30 EDT_

The dramatic time jump from the _Young Justice_ cartoon was something that I would have really liked to experience. After they replied as best as they could to Superboy’s ultimatum, the Justice League turned their attention to me, Sean and Toto.

“So, are you new heroes or what?” the Flash asked.

“Or what,” Sean said. “Definitely or what.”

“As much as it pains me to agree with him,” I said, “we’re not here to be heroes.”

“We wouldn’t be here at all if it weren’t for that portal,” Sean said, shooting a glare in my direction.

So we were back to that then? Take note, readers: Sean and I aren’t capable of working together for more than half an hour at a time.

“Excuse me? Who cast a spell next to that chuck of rock?” I pointed at him.

“You are magicians?” Zatara asked.

Sean and I were too busy arguing to reply.

“I did not cast a spell!” Sean insisted.

“You did too! I heard you!”

“We were being attacked by screaming monkeys with Freak freaking out three feet away! How could you have heard anything?”

“Just because your ears aren’t good-”

“ENOUGH!” Batman ordered.

Sean and I both went silent. The Batman is not someone you want to argue with.

Batman glared and for the first time he came close to matching a child of Hades. “Where did you come from?”

“Another Earth,” I said. “We came here by mistake. Just point us to the nearest obelisk and we’ll work on getting out of your hair.”

“Wait,” Kid Flash said, “you guys aren’t just going to leave like that, right?”

I looked at him and the rest of the new team. Call me a fangirl, but now that we weren’t in pressing danger I was really, really hyped about being in the same world as my favourite superheroes.

“Maybe we could stick around a bit longer…?” I asked Sean.

“Everyone is going to freak out if we don’t get back soon,” Sean pointed out. “And we’re actually more likely to die here than we are at home.”

I frowned. “You fight monsters every day.”

“These guys have a world-ending crisis every week,” Sean said.

“It’s not that bad!” I insisted, “It’s not like their home base is destroyed every other week.”

Yes, I was referencing the X-Men. No, it wasn’t a good time to start that argument again.

“Two words: Gotham City,” Sean said.

“Hey!” Robin exclaimed.

“Gotham City does not get destroyed that often!”

“They have a bunch of supervillains without a real superhero!”

Pretty much everyone’s jaw dropped. Toto stopped hiding behind Sean’s head and flew to tug at Superboy’s ears from behind his head.

Superboy scowled and swatted at Toto half-heartedly. “I hate monkeys.”

“You did not just say that in front of Batman,” I groaned.

“He did,” Kid Flash said. “It’s been nice knowing you, man.”

Batman stood completely still. He glowered at Sean. His gaze was finally enough to make both of us shrink back.

“We’ll drop you off at the Washington Monument,” Superman offered quickly before Batman could do anything truly terrifying.

“Thanks,” Sean squeaked.

Batman turned his gaze on the new team. “Go back to the Hall of Justice.”

“What happened to not treating us like kids anymore?” Kid Flash contested.

“We would like to see this through to the end,” Aqualad said.

“They did help us with Desmond,” Robin pointed out.

“You guys could go to Brooklyn,” I suggested. “That’s probably where we’ll end up if this doesn’t work.”

“Or we’ll end up scattered into atoms in the Duat,” Sean muttered. Then he yawned, twice.

“You should not be doing magic when you are so tired,” Zatara chided. That was probably why we ended up having a sleepover at the Hall of Justice.

No, I’m not joking. Kid Flash even went and got about ten bags of chips and popcorn. He ate most of them himself.

“So, how did you guys get here, exactly?” Kid Flash asked while he threw popcorn into his mouth.

“Magic,” Sean said.

“Huh, magic,” Kid Flash snorted. “Magic is just science that we haven’t figured out yet.”

“Keep telling yourself that,” I said. He was going to have a rude awakening soon enough.

Eventually the boys all fell asleep, though most of them weren’t in the sleeping bags that were spread across the floor. Kid Flash had passed out on the couch, Robin was on top of a bookcase, and Superboy was huddled in an armchair with his arms over his head to keep Toto out of his hair. I tossed and turned for a while before finally falling asleep (sleeping on the floor is not my favourite thing).

Then I got to experience my first _ba_ travel dream.

I knew what was happening at least. Getting tossed around in the currents of the Duat while in the form of an Amber-headed bird would have been more than a bit disturbing otherwise. It was a very bumpy ride. If I thought that my _ba_ had a stomach I would probably have thrown up.

The currents deposited my _ba_ next to a rushing river. The bank of the river that I was on was in complete darkness, while the opposite bank was dotted with pinpricks of light. I looked around on my side of the river and didn’t see anything that could tell me where I was until I looked down at my feet.

In the glow of my _ba_ I could see white sticks that were making up the riverbank. I couldn’t think of any place where the ground would be covered in white sticks, which should have been my first clue that I wasn’t anywhere in the mortal world, and stood puzzled for a moment before I heard a scream cutting through the darkness.

“Tell me! Tell me what you want!”

Of course, I headed towards the screamer.

At first I waddled like an idiot before I remembered that I had wings. Then I flew over the bank, not getting any closer to the river mind you, until I saw a group of three girls who were backing another girl to the edge of the riverbank.

_“Help us…”_ the three girls said.

“I don’t know how!” the other girl shouted. “Tell me how!”

I recognized that girl’s voice. It was my sister, and this was her dream, the demigod dream that she’d been having for years. The river was the Styx, in the Greek Underworld. The white sticks covering the riverbank were human bones. The three girls were dead demigods, who I won’t describe, again because it would make you sick. All in all, not a nice place to be.

I landed between Sapphire and the three dead girls. “If you can’t say anything useful, then leave,” I told the dead girls.

“Amber?” Sapphire squeaked.

I turned my head to look at her and grinned. “In the _ba._ ”

_“Help us,”_ the three dead girls whispered again. That was extremely useful.

Sapphire backed up further as the dead girls continued advancing on her. “So, you’re going to be my maid of honour, right?” she asked conversationally, as if she wasn’t in the middle of a nightmare.

“What?” I exclaimed. “When did you get engaged?”

And why hadn't I heard about it before? Her boyfriend and I were going to have words when I got home.

“A few hours ago. I tried to IM you but it wouldn’t go through.”

“That’s probably because I’m on a different Earth,” I told her.

It was Sapphire’s turn to let out a surprised exclamation. “How did that happen?”

“Portal malfunction, we think. There were flying monkeys involved.”

Sapphire shook her head and took another step back. “Do I even want to ask?”

I hopped out of the way of the whispering dead girls. “Nope,” I told her.

Thinking about dreams coming to life would probably give her even more nightmares. Getting woken up by your sister screaming is not pleasant and is something I don't want to do more of.

“Okay. So you’re on a different Earth,” she said. “How are you getting back?”

“We’re gonna try a portal. If that doesn’t work…maybe the Justice League can help.”

Sapphire’s eyes widened. “The Justice League? Where exactly are you?”

“On the Earth from the _Young Justice_ cartoon,” I admitted.

“Oh,” Sapphire said. “Before or after the Reach?”

“Before. We’re at the start of season one.”

Sapphire sighed. “Fun. Try not to screw up the timeline too much.”

“We’ll do our best,” I said. I couldn’t make any promises though. Magicians make a mess of things just as often as demigods.

You all know that's true. Don't try to argue

Sapphire took another step back and ended up right at the edge of the riverbank. “Who’s 'we'?” she asked.

“Me, Sean Edgley and a flying monkey,” I told her. “Would you let Mum and Dad know that I might end up stuck on an alternate Earth for a while?”

“Will do,” she promised with a strained smile. “But try not to get stuck.”

She looked at the three dead girls, then at the river churning behind her. She muttered something under her breath before looking back at me.

“Don’t try to save me,” she said. Then she stepped backwards and fell into the river Styx.

The three dead girls faded into mist as she screamed. I was about to take off and try to fish her out of the river, she’s my sister, damn it, I’ll never not try to save her, when a light on my side of the river caught my eye.

Standing downstream was a man with paper white hair and skin, dressed in robes of the same white. He touched the green jewel hanging around his neck and nodded to me.

Then I woke up.


	5. Attack of the Thread

_Washington, D.C._

_July 5 2010, 10:30 EDT_

Have all of you seen our Washington Monument? Probably not. Basically it’s a giant stone/concrete obelisk just opposite the White House that people can take tours of or something. I don’t know, I’ve never been inside it.

The Washington Monument on Earth-16 is pretty much the same, only blue. Don’t ask me why, it’s just blue.

“And we have to get to the top of that,” Sean said.

Both of us had our heads tilted back as far as possible so that we could try to see the top of the obelisk. It wasn’t working.

“Would now be a bad time to mention that I’ve got a fear of heights?” I asked.

“Please tell me you’re not serious,” Sean said.

I shook my head. “But by the time we get up there I might be.”

“Why couldn’t we just go to a museum?” Sean complained.

“Because it would probably end up getting robbed,” I reminded him.

Getting to the top of the Washington Monument was a pain and a half. If we took the elevator it would probably break, because magic and electronics. The stairs had been closed to the public years ago, but breaking in would attract less attention than having someone from the Justice League fly us to the top of the obelisk from the outside. So we broke in and got chased all the way to the top by a security guard who would have been a monster in disguise on our Earth.

“Run faster,” I yelled at Sean, who was running up the stairs in front of me, “or we’re going to miss noon!”

Somehow we made it to the top of the structure without tripping on the broken stairs or getting caught by the security guard, who we left in the dust somewhere around the fifth turn in the staircase. We burst out of the previously sealed door, startling the group of people on the observation deck and causing them to scatter like disturbed pigeons.

“I think we might have to take the elevator,” I gasped.

Sean looked at the window that the people on the observation deck had been looking out of.

“No,” I said. “Absolutely not.”

“If we don’t, we’re going to miss noon,” Sean said.

He was right. Damn it.

Like any good magician would, Sean had rope, which we tied around our waists at one end and sent Toto out the window to attach to the point of the obelisk.

“We are absolutely crazy,” I said.

Sean didn’t disagree with me, which must have been a sign of some world in the multiverse ending.

We were putting our trust in a flying monkey though.

Sean wrote hieroglyphics in black ink on the back of our hands and then we crawled out the window Spider-Man style just as the poor security guard finally caught up to us. He yelled something that neither of us heard because the wind at the top of the Washington Monument was ridiculous.

We climbed up the pyramid shaped top of the Washington Monument, very carefully _not_ looking down. Once we’d nearly reached the very top we stopped. Sean hugged the stone with his arms and legs and carefully took out his wand and staff.

Toto flew in circles around the point of the obelisk while Sean opened the portal. As soon as it opened, no doubt drawing a lot of attention from tourists below, Toto grabbed the other end of the rope we were tied to and Sean and I and our monkey jumped into the swirling sandstorm.

* * *

_Brooklyn, N.Y._

_July 5, 2010, 12:01 EDT_

The portal spat us out in a museum that was in the process of being robbed. Because of course it did.

“Brooklyn Museum,” Sean shouted over the sound of alarm bells and people running.

“Let me guess, you guys broke in here to ‘borrow’ an artifact,” I said, making air quotes with my fingers.

“It was to set traps,” Sean protested.

That made it so much better.

We had also ended up stuck inside a glass case with part of a stone wall that had probably been our portal anchor. Since the museum was probably going to end up being closed after the break-in anyway, we smashed the glass, somehow setting off more alarms, shrunk Sean’s rope back into twine, and joined the crowd running out of the Egyptian exhibit.

Suddenly, Sean stopped running. Toto slammed into the back of his head with a yelp and I just barely managed to stop in time to not run both of them over.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

Sean pointed at a magician’s wand displayed under a glass box. “I put a trap around that. It’s not there.”

I looked at the area around the wand, not that I could have seen any magic even if it was there. “Someone took it down?”

Sean shook his head. “It never existed.”

I sighed. “Styx.”

So the portal hadn’t taken us back to our Earth. Great. We just had to hope that we were still on Earth-16 and not somewhere more unfriendly. Earth-3 and Earth 2 come to mind.

“We’d better meet up with the team,” I said. “Let’s-”

I was cut off by a ball of yarn bouncing off my face.

While I stood blinking, trying to figure out what had just happened (you try getting hit by a ball of yarn in a museum and see how well you take it) a cat came running into the gallery, followed by a boy walking at a leisurely pace.

The cat was tiger striped and the boy had hair that looked like a pair of horns. It wasn’t too hard to figure out who they were.

“Klarion the Witch Boy,” I grumbled.

“That’s my name, don’t wear it out,” Klarion said with a smirk. “Teekl, fetch.”

Klarion pointed at the wand. Sean and I automatically formed up around it, putting ourselves between it and the cat.

“So, what’s important about this wand?” I asked.

“Short explanation, it’s cursed,” Sean replied.

I sighed. “Of course it is.”

Teekl darted towards us. Sean readied his staff and wand while I gripped the only weapon I had, the piece of twine that had just been a rope.

“How cursed is cursed?” I asked quickly.

Sean knocked Teekl into a wall with his signature fire hose water blast. “Any person who picks it up gets their fingers rotted off.”

“And if it breaks?”

Sean’s eyes widened and he started to grin.

“This is boring!” Klarion complained. He started saying something in a language that I couldn’t understand, but I returned his earlier favour and cut him off with a piece of string.

I’ve been reading my sister’s _Kane Chronicles_ books (our Earth is probably the only one that has children’s fantasy novels that are real life) and they all have these handy lists of gods, translations, and spells in their last pages. Most of those spells I wouldn’t use, like the one that restores Order to Chaos, because I don’t very much feel like spontaneously combusting. The spell I used against Klarion though was surprisingly painless, for me anyway.

I shouted, “ _Tas!_ ”, while throwing the piece of twine at Klarion. The twine grew into a long piece of rope that tied itself tightly around the Witch Boy, wrapping him up until only his eyes were visible.

Klarion mumbled loudly and Teekl, now dripping wet and looking almost as grumpy as its master, made another play for the wand. Sean pointed his wand at it, but changed targets at the last second.

“ _Ha-di!_ ”

The glass covering the wand exploded into dust. The wand itself looked unharmed and for a second I thought that maybe it couldn’t be destroyed. Then, ever so dramatically, the wand cracked in half and clattered to the floor.

“Aww,” Klarion complained. “You’re no fun.”

I looked at him and saw that he’d somehow gotten out of the tangle of rope, which was lying in coils around his feet. He clapped his hands and Teekl, who’d been wrestling with Toto, bounded over to him and jumped into his arms.

Klarion laughed as he opened a glowing red portal in the air next to him. “Nice magic though. I’ll be seeing you!”

He stepped through his portal and disappeared, leaving us standing in the destroyed Egyptian exhibit.

“Fan- _freaking_ -tastic,” Sean grumbled. “How’d he get out of the rope?”

I shrugged. “He is Chaos personified.”

The museum’s alarms were still ringing. With the amount of destructive noise we had been making it probably wouldn’t have been long before security guards came.

“Come on,” I told Sean. “Let’s go find the team before we get arrested.”


	6. We Fight Alligators…Maybe Crocodiles

_Brooklyn, N.Y._

_July 5, 2010, 12:20 EDT_

The team was right outside the museum fighting alligator men. Or maybe they were crocodiles. I don’t know, I can never tell them apart.

“You have got to be kidding,” Sean complained. Toto made a sound of agreement.

“Let me have the staff,” I said. “Water’s useless against these guys.”

Aqualad was finding that out the hard way. The blades of his waterbenders passed straight through the monsters without leaving a scratch. He had to drop them and grab the jaw of the creature that was attacking him so that he wouldn’t get his head bitten off.

“The staff is offensive,” Sean said. “You get the wand.”

Well, at least I got more than a piece of string this time.

Sean threw the staff to the ground, where it turned into an alligator (or crocodile) that was twice the size of the alligator (or crocodile) men. It charged at one of the three alligator (or crocodile) men that was attacking Robin and tore it to pieces in less than ten seconds.

“Nice,” Robin said with a grin.

After a few more minutes, every one of the monsters was brought down. The dead ones, which were all of them once Sean was finished, turned into piles of sand on the pavement.

The yellow and red blur that was Kid Flash came to a stop. “Well, that was fun.”

Superboy frowned. “Is that really what fun is?”

“For us? Yeah,” Kid Flash told him.

Robin looked at me, Sean, and Toto. “No luck with your portal?”

“No, we just decided to come to your Brooklyn for the heck of it,” Sean said sarcastically.

“We ran into Klarion the Witch Boy in the museum,” I said.

“Klara what now?” Kid Flash asked.

He looked at Robin, who shrugged. “Not ringing any bells, dude.”

“He’s an immortal sorcerer with a cat,” I said. “Wanted to steal a cursed wand but we stopped him. If the Justice League doesn’t already know that he’s in play, then they need to.”

“We should contact the League,” Aqualad decided. “Robin?”

Robin nodded. “Consider it done.”

Sean kicked one of the piles of sand. “Where’d you find these guys?”

“They started popping out of the ground all over the city,” Kid Flash said. “There are some League members taking care of the rest.”

“Did you just run around the entire city to figure that out?” I asked.

Kid Flash grinned. “Yup.”

It was a good thing that all the streets were probably as empty as the one we were on.

“Zatara is on his way,” Robin announced. “He wants us gone because he’s bringing a friend that he doesn’t want us to meet, which is so not asterous.”

“Asterous?” Sean asked.

“It’s his thing, just go with it,” I whispered.

Sean shook his head. “Whatever. Do you guys want to come to Egypt with us?”

Robin, Aqualad, Kid Flash and Superboy looked at each other. “Egypt?” Aquald asked. 

To be fair, that probably did seem like a random location, but I sort of expected that at least Robin would have figured out the connection, what with the Sons of Horus statues and the obelisks. And how many times had we mentioned the Duat in front of them?

“Yes, Egypt,” I said. “Because Per Ankh.”

“The House of Life,” Superboy translated. “A library or a place where Ancient Egyptian scribes learned to write.”

Why Cadmus, or Lex Luthor, had thought that that was an important piece of information for Superboy to know I had no idea. I still don’t, but it helped the others sort of understand why we wanted to go to Egypt.

Sort of.

“In our world, scribes were also magicians,” Sean said. “And they still are, only all over the world, not just in Egypt.”

“So you want to see if it’s the same here,” Robin deduced.

Sean kicked a pile of sand again. “You guys are fighting our kind of monsters.”

“So, Egypt,” Kid Flash said. “Cool. How do we get there?”

I shrugged. “Do you guys have Cleopatra’s Needle on this Earth?”


	7. The Doorman has a Bad Day

_Giza, Al Omraneyah, Egypt_

_July 5, 2010, 13:05 EDT (19:05 local time)_

Kid Flash did not enjoy portal travel. Even with all of the sounds of the Duat, we could hear him yelling through the entire ride. When we reached our destination he took one step and fell to his hands and knees on top of the Pyramid of Khafre (it’s the second tallest of The Pyramids, and, yes, I had to look it up).

“Ground,” he muttered. “Solid ground.”

We did the polite thing and ignored him while he got his bearings back, though Robin probably teased him later about all the ridiculous things he said.

I looked over the edge of the top of the pyramid to the ground below. “Climbing down this is going to be so much fun.”

Superboy, Toto and Robin had it easy. They made it to the bottom of the pyramid in seconds. The rest of us, even Kid Flash, had to struggle climbing down every giant brick. It was hot and exhausting and probably more dangerous than the climbing wall at Camp Half-Blood.

Probably.

The sun was setting, so there weren’t any tourists for us to worry about while we climbed. By the time we were all at the bottom of the pyramid the sun was fully set and the stars were beginning to come out.

“Where to now?” Kid Flash asked while Aqualad, Sean and I caught our breath.

Sean took one hand off of his knees and used it to point at the Sphinx before he went back to properly panting.

Once we were all able to breathe again, Sean led us to the entrance to the First Nome that was under the Sphinx. On our Earth the entrance had been tightly resealed after an army of magicians working with Apophis had blown it open with several hundred kilograms of explosive power. On Earth-16 it screamed trap.

Toto took one look at the seemingly sealed tunnel and flew straight back outside, screeching at the top of its lungs.

As an aside, I don’t know what Toto’s sex is. It’s a magic monkey and, seriously, the subject never came up.

Sean held out his arms to stop us from going any further. “This isn’t right.”

“Dude, this tunnel is supposed to be a dead end,” Robin said.

I winced. “You just had to say ‘dead’?”

“It’s a glamour,” Sean said with a frown, “but it feels like…”

“It feels like what?” Aqualad asked when Sean didn’t continue.

“It feels like godly magic,” Sean said slowly.

I hadn’t met any gods before, except for Hermes that one time for about two seconds, so I didn’t know what godly magic felt like. After inching forward slightly I knew I would be able to recognize it anywhere. The air around the entrance was heavy, like it was extremely humid, and charged with electricity. It felt like a very good place for getting electrocuted.

“Maybe they work with gods here?” I suggested.

Sean frowned. “Maybe.”

“We must all be alert,” Aqualad said. “Gods…complicate things.”

“You’re telling me,” I muttered.

I am a mortal. My identical twin sister is a demigod. You try to figure out how that works.

The glamour was flimsy and obvious once Sean had mentioned it. Beyond the threshold of the godly magic, the tunnel disappeared into the darkness. Sean passed me the wand before leading the way with Aqualad just behind him holding his waterbenders aloft as a source of light. I ended up covering our backs with Robin, who was holding a glow stick from his tool belt.

“I don’t think anyone’s home,” Kid Flash said.

Superboy grunted. “I don’t hear anyone.”

Up ahead, Sean let out a yell. The rest of us hurried to catch up with him and Aqualad.

Sean had stopped in front of something that was lying across the floor of the tunnel, blocking our path. In the dim light it was nearly the same colour as the stone around it so I thought that maybe a bit of the ceiling had caved in or something. It wasn’t until I got closer that I saw that it was a corpse that had been partially mummified by the dry, desert temperature that still existed in the tunnel. The parts that weren’t mummified were dry bones that had been gnawed on in a way that made me think there were rats running around with a taste for human flesh.

“Freaky,” Kid Flash decided.

Robin disagreed. “That’s kind of whelming.”

I weaved around the boys and knelt down to get a closer look at the mummy. It was lying on its side facing away from us. Its clothes were damaged, stained, crumpled and chewed on by whatever animal had eaten most of its legs, but the parts that were recognizable were nearly identical to the cotton magician’s clothes that Sean and I were wearing.

I gave the mummy’s shoulder a tug and rolled it over onto its back. I know, touching a dead body, gross. If you spend any time with Nico di Angelo being squeamish about corpses is something you have to get over quickly or else you end up like my sister. The colour she turns whenever there are undead warriors walking around is frighteningly impressive (and she is going to be so mad at me for saying that).

“We shouldn’t be disturbing the body,” Sean muttered.

“If a ghost was going to pop up in our faces, it would have happened by now,” I pointed out.

Ghosts aren’t very good with the whole subtlety thing.

The mummy had half of a broken wand clutched in its left hand and a section of a staff in the remains of its right. The handle of a dagger stuck out of its chest, the fabric around it stained darkly with what had to be centuries-old blood.

“That doesn’t look good,” Aqualad said.

Superboy huffed. “Obvious much?”

Yeah, it didn’t look good, for more than the obvious reasons. The style of the dagger looked familiar to me, but to confirm it I had to pull the dagger out of the mummy’s chest and pray that I wouldn’t unleash a horrible curse that Sean hadn’t been able to sense.

We were lucky, there weren’t any curses.

The blade was rusted and the tip of it had broken off somewhere inside the mummy. What was left of it though was enough for me to see that my first guess hadn’t been wrong.

I swallowed. “This is Roman.”

“Roman?” Sean asked.

I nodded. “Sapphire has one just like it. It’s a _pugio._

“Well,” Sean said, “this just got a lot worse.”

Mixing Romans and Egyptians didn’t usually end well. Just look at Cleopatra.


	8. Why Do the Romans Get Into Everything?

_Giza, Al Omraneyah, Egypt_

_July 5, 2010, 13:35 EDT (19:35 local time)_

We found three more bodies in the tunnel after the mummy who had been stabbed. They were blocking the other end of the tunnel, which opened right across from the entrance to the Hall of Ages just like it does on our Earth, and had probably been standing there to stop the invaders. Each of them had gotten their head blown up for their trouble.

Seriously, there were pieces of skull all over the floor. For all I know we could have been standing on what was left of their brains. It was disturbing.

“Roman weapons don’t do that,” Robin said.

I shook my head. “No, they don’t.” Not any weapon that could fit inside the tunnel anyway. (And I blame Sapphire for me knowing so much about Roman weapons. She doesn’t even go to Camp Jupiter!)

“So, how did that happen?” Kid Flash asked, pointing at the dead magicians.

“They must have had magicians with them,” Sean guessed. “That would explain why we’ve only seen four bodies.”

He had a point. With the tunnel not being sealed off, having only four guards during an invasion seemed very unlikely. If the Romans had magicians with them the other guards could have been turned into fruit bats or something.

Between the three dead magicians there was one wand and one staff that hadn’t been broken. I decided to permanently borrow them because getting into fights with only one staff and wand between the two of us was going to stop working eventually. Hey, it wasn’t like the dead guys would need them.

We carefully walked around the mostly trampled corpses. Behind them, the doors to the Hall of Ages stood wide open. The curtains of light that showed scenes from every age were flickering like televisions with bad signals, providing just enough light for those of us without superhuman senses to see more corpses scattered all over the floor.

I sighed. “Fantastic…”

“Don’t look at the curtains,” Sean warned us as we entered the Hall, “and don’t touch them. Your brains will melt.”

Kid Flash immediately looked away from the gold curtain he had been staring at. “Good to know.”

“What exactly are we looking for?” Superboy asked. His voice was right behind me and I jumped. The boy had been so quite that I had nearly forgotten that he was with us.

“I don’t think we’re going to find anything helpful here,” Kid Flash said, looking down at the bodies on the floor.

“This is just the Hall of Ages,” Sean said. “There’s still the library and the classrooms and…”

“I do not believe there is anyone here who is alive except for us,” Aqualad said slowly.

Robin walked further into the Hall, towards the steps and throne at the very back. “Guys? You might want to see this.”

There was a body lying in front of the steps at the base of the pharaoh’s throne. Its head had been cut off and was lying near its feet. It wasn’t the body that Robin was looking at though; it was the random pile of pottery shards behind it.

“Is that an eye?” Kid Flash asked.

I looked more closely at the pile of pottery and saw the fragment that Kid Flash was probably talking about. There was a brown eye painted on the shard, slightly faded and cracked, but still obviously an eye.

“That’s an eye,” Sean said. “Guys, I think this was a shabti.”

“A what?” Kid Flash asked.

“A shabti,” I repeated. “Basically a magical statue automaton.” Just not the kind that Daedalus made.

Kid Flash’s eyes widened. “The Ancient Egyptians had robots?”

“Be quiet,” Superboy said suddenly. 

I looked at him and saw that he was standing off to the side with a frown on his face. All of us practically held our breath.

“There’s someone else here,” Superboy told us at last. “I can hear their heartbeat.” He looked carefully at the wall behind the throne.

I looked at Sean. “Isn’t there a secret room somewhere around here on our Earth?”

Sean frowned. “I think so. It could be over there maybe?” He pointed off to the side of the throne.

Robin went over and started to examine the wall. “I think there’s something here.” He reached out to touch a bird that was painted on the stone.

“Wait! It could be-”

There was a pop as Robin turned into a little grey bird.

“-trapped,” Sean finished saying.

The bird-that-was-Robin chirped and flew to land on Kid Flash’s shoulder.

Kid Flash shook his head. “Dude…really?”

Bird Robin chirped again. He was probably saying something like, "Yes, really, and I'm so not whelmed." I don’t know. I don’t speak Bird.

“Well, that’s probably the door,” I said. “Why else would it be trapped?”

Sean nodded. “At least it wasn’t exploding donkeys.”

“Exploding donkeys?” Aqualad repeated.

“Don’t ask,” Sean and I said.

Kid Flash poked Robin-as-a-bird with one finger. “How do we turn him back? I don’t think Batman will be happy working with an actual bird.”

The rest of the team looked at me and Sean. I looked at Sean. He had been doing the whole magician thing a lot longer than I had.

Sean took out his wand. “It looks like a simple transformation spell. Stand on the floor, Robin, and I’ll try to reverse it.”

Bird Robin flutter hopped off of Kid Flash’s shoulder and landed on an empty patch of the floor. Sean pointed his wand at him and muttered something under his breath.

Nothing happened.

“Okay…” Kid Flash said.

Sean frowned. “Maybe if I…” He waved his wand slightly.

The grey bird-that-was-Robin expanded quickly like a balloon. For a second I thought that he was going to burst, but then he took on colour and suddenly Robin was back. He had more feathers in his hair than usual, but he was a human again.

Robin grimaced and rubbed his arms. “That was uncomfortable. Is craving crickets normal after being turned into a bird?”

“It’ll wear off,” Sean told him.

We all looked at the bird that had turned Robin into a bird. It looked very much like it was laughing at us.

“Now what?” Kid Flash asked.

“Now,” I said, “we get through that door.” 


	9. Sean is Actually Useful (Surprise)

_The First Nome, Giza, Al Omraneyah, Egypt_

_July 5, 2010, 14:00 EDT (20:00 local time)_

Here’s a tip, just because you say something, doesn’t mean it’s true. Shocker, I know.

We spent I don’t know how long trying to think of ways to get into the secret room. If we were Martians we could have just density shifted our way in, but we weren’t Martians (obviously). After that long, long time, I got frustrated. 

“Open up already!” I shouted at the bird.

If you were expecting that to open the door, it didn’t.

“That worked really well,” Kid Flash said. I scowled at him.

“Shouldn’t there be a guardian _ba_ or something?” I asked Sean.

Sean shook his head. “That’s just at the main entrance.”

“Is this really that important?” Superboy grumbled.

“Yes!” Sean and I said.

Aqualad looked up from examining the hieroglyphics on the wall. “I believe I may have found something. The bird moved and, well, this.”

The rest of us crowded around the wall to look at the new line of hieroglyphics that Aqualad had found. Sean slowly started to read them.

“That’s ‘house’,” he muttered. “And ‘blood’ and...‘sacrifice’, of course. ‘Great’...Oh, fantastic.”

“What does it say?” Robin asked.

“Best translation? ‘Libation of the blood of the pharaohs’,” Sean told us.

“Libation as in offering or sacrifice?” Aqualad asked.

Sean nodded. “Does anyone have a knife?”

The explosive babble was almost instantaneous. I couldn’t actually make out what everyone was saying but I’m guessing that it was a lot of what-the-hell-are-you-thinking?

“Hey!” Sean said. “Is anyone else here blood of the pharaohs? No? That’s what I thought. So give me a knife or I’m getting out papyrus to summon one.”

Robin took a Swiss Army knife out of his belt and handed it to Sean without another word. Sean found the blade on the multi-tool and cut the tip of his finger. When he touched the wall, way more blood than was humanly possible to come out of that cut filled the hieroglyphics that had been behind the bird. The hieroglyphics glowed red for a moment before they disappeared, taking several square metres of the wall with them. 

We stared into the dark tunnel that had appeared.

“Well, that worked,” Kid Flash said. “Who’s going into the creepy tunnel?”

“You, me and Sean,” I told him. “Because three. Come on.”

“Wait, what?” Kid Flash protested as Sean and I pushed him into the tunnel.

“Call for help if we don’t send Kid Flash back in ten minutes,” Sean said over his shoulder to Aqualad, Robin, and Superboy.

The tunnel was actually fairly short. No traps, no exploding donkeys, just an annoying lack of lighting. It sloped down gradually, putting us even further underground.

When Sean stepped out of the end of the tunnel, the room he was in was immediately flooded with light. I blinked away the spots in my vision and just managed to avoid tripping as I entered the room. It was a rather interesting place.

Kid Flash looked around so quickly that his head was a blur. “Are you guys seeing this?”

Sean and I looked at each other. We were seeing it. The room had walls covered in hieroglyphics and Egyptian paintings, of course. There were also three Egyptian style statues. One was a goddess wearing the crown of unified Egypt and holding an ankh. The other two were gods, one wearing what looked like two giant cobs of corn on top of his head, and the other wearing a disk on top of his falcon head. The statues were standing at the head of a clear sarcophagus with the goddess in the middle and the corn hat god furthest away from us.

A ripple moved through the sarcophagus every few seconds, like it was made of water. Suspended inside the sarcophagus was a young man wearing white robes and holding his arms crossed over his chest. I stepped a bit closer to the sarcophagus and saw that the man was holding a crook in one hand and a flail in the other.

“Wow,” Sean said, looking over my shoulder. “This is powerful magic. And...I think that’s the _original_ crook and flail.”

“Wow,” I repeated. There wasn’t any sign of people coming into the First Nome before us. That magic had probably kept the man hidden and alive for thousands of years. “I guess we know where Iskandar got his idea from.”

The ground suddenly began to shake. We stumbled away from the churning sarcophagus.

“What’s happening?” Kid Flash asked.

“I don’t know!” Sean said. “We must have triggered something!”

The ground shook so hard that the statues began to tremble. The falcon-headed god nearly fell over.

Then the sarcophagus exploded. It sent out a shockwave that threw everything that wasn’t nailed down, namely us and the statues. I saw the falcon-headed god smash against the floor just before I hit the wall (or the floor, it was a little too crazy to try to figure out the difference) and everything went black.


	10. Does Anyone Have a Can Opener?

_The First Nome, Giza, Al Omraneyah, Egypt_

_July 5, 2010, 14:30 EDT (20:30 local time)_

The way that I woke up was weird. Like, I don’t even know if it was medically possible. I got feeling in my body back first, so I could feel the stone scratching my neck but I wasn’t able to move. Then I could open my eyes and look around but I couldn’t see anything, and I still couldn’t move anything else. My hearing came back and I could hear Sean yelling at someone, but I couldn’t see who he was yelling at so “Get out, get out, get out!” didn’t really mean anything to me. Then I could move, but moving without seeing where I was going didn’t seem like a good idea, so I stayed put. Then, finally, after a sliver flash of light I could see.

I told you it was weird.

I sat up slowly and saw that the person Sean was yelling at was no one at all. Kid Flash was gone and the man from the sarcophagus seemed to be alive and well aside from being knocked unconscious. He had probably hit his head on the statue of the corn hat god, which was the only statue still in one piece.

“Who are you talking to?” I asked. I was practically shouting so that Sean would hear me over his own voice.

Sean spun around and looked at me with wide eyes. “There’s a goddess in my head!”

Oh.

“Get out, get out, get out!” suddenly made a lot more sense.

“Well, you’re not burning up or anything,” I said. “That’s good, right?”

The scowl on Sean’s face indicated that maybe burning up would have been preferable. “I didn’t invite a goddess to share headspace with me and keep telling me I have to tuck in my shirt!”

Well, that would get annoying very quickly, but Sean had been trained to work with gods. I was sure he could handle whatever goddess had decided to catch a ride.

“Try to relax and not get each other killed,” I suggested. “I’m going to check on our friend.”

I stood up and waited for my head to stop spinning before I walked over to the unconscious sarcophagus man. I wasn’t sure how to go about waking him up, so I poked him in the arm. It probably wasn’t my best idea because the man almost immediately jumped up and pointed the flail he was still holding at me before falling over.

“Woah!” I caught the man’s arm and helped him sit down. “It’s alright, we’re not going to hurt you.”

The man said something in a language that I didn’t understand. It sounded like the Ancient Greek that the demigods from Camp Half-Blood learned, but I didn’t speak Ancient Greek.

The man spoke again, more forcefully. I raised my hands so that he could see I wasn’t holding any weapons. Getting turned to dust by the original crook and flail would not be helpful for getting home.

“Sean,” I asked, “do you know what he’s saying?”

“I can’t,” Sean started to say.

“You can’t what?” I asked when he didn’t keep speaking.

“ _She_ can speak to him,” Sean said. “But I don’t think letting a god talk to this guy is a good idea.”

Considering how the magicians on our Earth viewed the gods by the time the Romans had taken over, not shoving gods in the sarcophagus man’s face was probably a good idea.

“So we do this the hard way then,” I muttered.

I moved slowly and pointed at myself. “Amber,” I said. Then I pointed at Sean. “Sean.”

I didn’t want to point at the man since there were probably plenty of spells that could be done by pointing at someone, but the man seemed to understand what I was doing.

“Iskandar,” he said, pointing one finger at his chest.

“Iskandar?” Sean whispered. “Like the old Chief Lector?”

“Maybe,” I whispered back.

“This is not helping me freak out less,” Sean hissed.

I tried to charades my way through asking Iskandar some questions but quickly gave up. I was never good at charades and the double language-and-time barrier was not helping.

I turned to Sean, who had finally managed to calm down a little. “Isn’t there a spell for this?”

Sean shrugged. “I don’t know everything about magic, I just know more than you.”

I rolled my eyes. “If you can’t say anything useful, go find Kid Flash or something.”

I was sure that there was a spell for translation, I remembered Amos Kane using it in _The Serpent's Shadow_. I just didn’t know what it was. It meant “speak”, didn’t it? It made everyone speak in Ancient Egyptian. What was it?!

_Med-wah_ , something in my mind told me. Was that the spell? Well, it wasn’t _Ma’at_ but I still didn’t want to go around throwing out Divine Words willy-nilly. I didn’t know what that spell did.

What’s life without a little risk?

I looked at Iskandar. “Per Ankh,” I said, pointing to myself.

“Per Ankh?” Iskandar asked.

I nodded. Then I pointed towards the wand that I’d dropped when the room exploded. Iskandar looked at it and then turned back to me. I took one step towards the wand. When Iskandar didn’t move to utterly destroy me, I took another step.

“You don’t think you’re being a bit too cautious?” Sean muttered.

“Sean,” I said, without looking away from Iskandar, “shut up.”

It took five more small steps to reach the wand. I bent down to pick it up and slowly stood up again.

“Be ready to make a shield if this doesn’t work,” I told Sean. He nodded.

I instinctually pointed the wand at a point between the three of us and above our heads. “ _Med-wah_.”

Hieroglyphics appeared and hovered in the air, creating a blue light that covered us. Iskandar and Sean looked up at them.

“Well, that’s something,” Sean said.

“Iskandar, can you understand us now?” I asked.

“Indeed I can,” Iskandar said. “Do you understand me?”

Yes, we did.

“So, I’m Amber and he’s Sean,” I repeated. “We’re both magicians, like you are.”

“Only we have less training,” Sean added. Telling that to a guy who might want to kill us was totally a great idea.

“Ah,” Iskandar said, “I suppose that would be why neither of you appear to have noticed that you are hosting gods.”

“Hey!” Sean exclaimed. “I’ve noticed, and she is not welcome.”

Iskandar nodded slowly. “That is wise.”

“Wait, wait.” I held my hands up in a “stop everything” position. “Did you say that _both_ of us are hosting gods?”

“I did,” Iskandar replied. “I thought that you could understand me?”

“We can, I can,” I babbled. “But that would mean I’m hosting a god. I can’t be hosting a god. I’m a mortal. I haven’t burnt up. There’s no way I’m hosting a god.”

“But you are,” Iskandar said.

“Well, which god?” I asked. “Which god is supposedly stuck inside my head?”

Iskandar looked me straight in the eyes. “It’s only polite to introduce yourself. Say hello, Khonsu.”


	11. More Fun With Time Travellers

_The First Nome, Giza, Al Omraneyah, Egypt_

_July 5, 2010, 14:40 EDT (20:40 local time)_

Kid Flash came running into the room just as the voice inside my head said, _‘Hello.’_

“No,” I said. “Gods no. Get out of my head right now.”

_‘Hmmm...I don’t think so,’_ Khonsu said. _‘I’ve been stuck in that statue for...What year is it?’_

His tone was even less welcome than he was.

“Oh, shut up,” I muttered. He was giving me a headache, or maybe that was from hitting my head and getting knocked out. Whatever.

I turned my attention back to what was going on around me. Kid Flash was talking so fast that none of us could understand him. Iskandar was raising his flail and I didn’t really want to see if the fastest kid alive could outrun magic.

I motioned for Iskandar to stop. “Iskandar, he’s a friend.”

Iskandar lowered his weapon but continued to watch Kid Flash warily. “Why is he so fast?”

“It’s his thing,” Sean said. “Kid Flash, calm down.”

Kid Flash didn’t seem to notice Sean speaking.

“This is strange magic,” Iskandar said.

“This is strange science,” I corrected. “Kid Flash, shut up!”

Kid Flash immediately froze.

Sean motioned for him to come closer. “You know everything you just said? Say it again, only slower. And make sure you’re under the hieroglyphics.”

Kid Flash seemed to instantaneously move into our circle, causing Iskandar to jump in surprise. He told us about how he had run around the room and tried to catch us during the explosion but, as it turned out, he couldn’t outrun magic. Then he’d run back through the tunnel to get help but found that the other end of the tunnel had closed.

I turned to Iskandar. “Are we stuck in here?”

Iskandar shook his head slowly. “I do not believe so, though my entry into this room is not something I remember clearly.”

“What do you remember?” Sean asked.

Iskandar frowned. “We were under attack. My master and I barricaded the Hall of Ages with many other magicians and were going to take a secret passage to evacuate the city but the doors were broken down...My master defended me. He...he can’t be...”

“Great job,” Kid Flash muttered as Iskandar shook his head helplessly.

Sean looked like he’d just been punched in the gut. “Sorry!”

_‘Way to greet a guy who’s been in a magical sleep for two thousand and forty years,’_ Khonsu commented.

_‘Now you know what year it is?’_ I complained. _‘If you can’t say anything useful keep your big mouth shut.’_

Khonsu shut up, but if he’d had a physical form he would have been sticking his tongue out at me.

“Sean, go and try to open the tunnel again,” I said. “Get the rest of the team in here if you can, if not come back and we’ll take a portal to them.”

Sean nodded. “On it.”

“And try to find Toto,” I called after him as he ran out of the room. Even though Superboy would probably have been happy to leave our flying monkey behind, it was as much a part of the team as he was. Leaving Toto in Egypt would not have been nice.

While we waited, Kid Flash took some granola bars out of a storage compartment in his suit and ate them slowly, for a speedster, probably just to have something to do. I debating sitting down because my head was spinning but decided against it because that would probably be when a monster decided to come crashing through the wall. Instead I started babbling so that I (and Iskandar) would have something else to think about.

I must have mentioned coming from a different Earth once or twice, because Iskandar eventually asked, “Does the House of Life work with gods on your Earth?”

“Er...sort of,” I admitted. “It was banned for a long time, I think our Earth’s version of you banned it actually, and then a few years after the Path of the Gods started being studied again the gods had to leave Earth to keep the balance after the Serpent of Chaos was killed.”

Iskandar’s eyes widened. “The Serpent escaped from his prison? How was your Earth not destroyed?”

“We have powerful and stubborn magicians,” I said. “Plus, world-ending apocalypses tend to happen practically every year so we’ve collectively gotten better at stopping them.”

That was my theory anyway. Considering that the Greek, Roman and Egyptian gods existed it wouldn’t be far-fetched for the Norse and Celtic pantheons to have had their own apocalypse experiences to add to the collective heroes’ unconscious. It would be nice if they didn’t though. Our Earth is already crazy enough.

“Every year?” Iskandar asked.

I nodded. “Pretty much, though it hasn’t been that bad recently.”

“That is good,” Iskandar said. “Is this Earth very much like yours?”

“No, no. Not at all,” I said. “So, do you know what god Sean is stuck with?”

Iskandar didn’t balk at the change in subject. “I believe that it is Mut.”

“Mut?”

_‘My mom,’_ Khonsu said helpfully.

I grimaced. “Sean has Khonsu’s mom stuck in his head?”

Iskandar nodded.

“This is way more like Carter and Sadie than I am comfortable with,” I said.

“What was that?” Sean asked.

He stepped all the way out of the tunnel with Superboy, Aqualad, Robin and Toto behind him. Toto was perched on top of Superboy’s head and had a death grip on his ears. As would be expected, Superboy did not look happy.

“The god in your head is the mom of the god in my head,” I said after Sean had stepped under the translation spell. “I was saying that that’s a lot like what happened with Carter and Sadie.”

Sean shrugged, seemingly unperturbed. “They do fight a lot. Anyway, we’re ready to go.”

I nodded and turned to Iskandar, who was looking at the rest of the team with wide eyes. It may have had something to do with their costumes. I doubt spandex was popular in Ptolemaic Egypt.

“This is Robin, Aqualad, Superboy and Toto,” I said, pointing at each team member as I named them. “They’re heroes-in-training, well, Robin, Aqualad and Superboy are, and they work with the Justice League. The Justice League is like...this Earth’s magicians. They stop the world from being destroyed, but not all of them use magic.”

“Do they use Kid Flash’s science?” Iskandar asked.

“One of them does, he’s the Flash, but the others not so much. It’s hard to explain.”

“Don’t worry,” Sean said before Iskandar could ask for clarification, “we’ll introduce you. Come on, portal.”

While Kid Flash babbled to the rest of the team, probably explaining everything that had happened after we went into the tunnel at a speed that Aqualad and Robin were used to even if the rest of us weren’t, Sean opened a portal using the remaining statue. If things in the U.S. hadn’t turned into complete chaos in the time we’d been gone, the other end of the portal should have been attached to a brand new metal pyramid by the Hall of Justice that an “anonymous donor” had given to the Justice League as an outdoor art installation. If the Justice League was busy stopping a world-ending event, like Wotan trying to block out the sun again, then we would probably end up in a museum, probably one in the process of being robbed, again.

Kid Flash handled traveling by portal better the second time. We couldn’t hear him screaming all the way through, just at the very beginning.

Luck was on our side for once: the portal did not spit us out in a random museum. The pyramid statue was exactly where it was supposed to be, around the back of the Hall of Justice away from the tourists, and was just tall enough that we could all jump to the ground without breaking anything. Batman, the Flash and Aquaman were waiting for us.

“How was Egypt?” the Flash asked.

Batman had different priorities. He zeroed in on Iskandar and growled, “Who are you?”

Iskandar did the normal thing to do when faced with Batman for the first time and backed up a few steps, his hand hovering over the crook and flail that he had tucked into his waistband. Something that sounded like a question came out of his mouth.

I looked at the three superheroes, at least one of whom was raising his eyebrows (it was a little hard to see past Batman and the Flash’s masks). “Do any of you speak Alexandrian Greek?”


	12. Khonsu Gets a Date

_The Hall of Justice, Washington, D.C._

_July 5, 2010, 15:40 EDT_

Of course, no one spoke Alexandrian Greek. Not even Batman, which was a real disappointment. Out of all the major players in the Justice League he was the one who I would have expected to learn an ancient language.

Martian Manhunter ended up Zetaing in to act as translator. His appearance startled Iskandar. After everyone had been introduced, including the hitchhiking gods that Sean and I had unfortunately not lost during the trip, Iskandar asked how far from Egypt we were. That answer snowballed into a history of life, the universe and everything on Earth-16 that I tuned out of when Khonsu started complaining about being bored so that I could argue with him.

Hey, I knew most of the history stuff already, and Khonsu was being r _eally_ annoying.

“Earth to Amber!” Sean waved his hand in front of my face and I jumped.

“Sorry, arguing with a god. What’s happening?”

“Iskandar thinks he can help us get home,” Sean said. “I volunteered us for research.”

“Oh,” I said.

My eyes widened.

“ _Oh_ ,” I said. “That’s great! When do we start?”

Sean grimaced. “When we go back to the First Nome to get the books he needs.”

Oh. That was just fantastic.

Sean and I spent the rest of the day in Egypt collecting books. We didn’t want to bring Iskandar with us because he shouldn’t have to see what was left of his home, but we kind of regretted it after the umpteenth trap we had to disable. After that was done I can finally use a time jump because we did _nothing_ but research.

* * *

_Mount Justice, Rhode Island_

_July 8, 2010, 08:04 EDT_

You know how I said _we_ did nothing but research? It was more like _I_ did nothing but research. Sean and Iskandar got distracted by Sean’s side project of teaching Iskandar English and, for some reason, Irish Gaelic, when they realized that they could communicate by writing in hieroglyphics. Khonsu just kept making unhelpful comments because he was mad about one of the traps we’d run into while we were collecting the new section of the Justice League’s library. I don’t know what Mut was doing but it probably had something to do with nagging Sean about not eating enough. And Toto was a monkey.

Fun fact: Most monkeys can’t read hieroglyphics. Toto is one of them.

Getting dragged away from the piles of scrolls by Kid Flash was more than welcome. I wasn’t an expert at reading hieroglyphics to start with, and the few books in Greek and Demotic weren’t any better. With Khonsu refusing to translate I had to struggle through with my limited knowledge and several dictionaries while I tried not to mix up bird hieroglyphs.

Taking the Zeta-Beam from the Hall of Justice to Mount Justice was a much smoother trip than portals or shadow travel. I was momentarily jealous that our Earth doesn’t have that technology before I got distracted by Batman officially creating the Young Justice team.

“Red Tornado volunteered to live here to be your supervisor,” he was saying. “Black Canary is in charge of training.”

_‘That gorgeous woman is in charge of training?’_ Khonsu asked. _‘You’d better not miss any lessons.’_

_‘I have to work on getting us home,’_ I said. _‘And either way you are not allowed to take over my body to flirt, or for any other reason.’_

_‘But she’s beautiful and can kill people,’_ Khonsu complained.

_‘And you’re a whiny god in the body of a seventeen year old girl. I’m not saying we can’t enjoy the view, but I’m pretty sure this Canary isn’t bisexual. Besides, she’s dating Green Arrow. ’_

_‘But-’_

_‘Shut up and let Batman finish talking.’_

“For now, the seven of you will be that team,” Batman said.

“Seven?” Iskandar asked. “Seven...us?”

Sean pointed at Iskandar with his thumb. “What he said.”

Batman just looked over our heads. I was the first to turn to see Martian Manhunter and Miss Martian make their entrance, but that was only because I knew it was coming. Sean and I were lucky. So far our appearance hadn’t totally thrown off the timeline of the TV show.

“This is Miss Martian, the Martian Manhunter’s niece,” Aquaman told us. 

Miss Martian gave a small smile. “Hi.”

_‘You’re right, she is cute,’_ Khonsu said.

_‘Shut up.’_

_‘You were thinking it, rather loudly I might add.’_

The image of a grinning silver-eyed young man came to the forefront of my mind. Khonsu, obviously. 

_‘Shut up,’_ I told him again.

While Sean stayed behind to argue with Batman—something I did not want to be around for—I dragged Iskandar over to Miss Martian to say hello with the rest of the team. Iskandar only stared at her for a split second before shaking her hand. He was a lot more used to the appearance of non-humans than he had been the day he woke up.

“I’m Amber,” I said when Miss Martian looked at me. “The god in my head is Khonsu. If you try using telepathy with me he’ll probably chime in. Sean and Mut are over there by Batman. And the flying monkey is Toto.”

Miss Martian tilted her head. “There’s a god in your head?”

Before anyone could answer her question, a shout from Batman made everyone, even Robin, jump about a foot in the air. 

“You _will_ be providing assistance to the team for as long as you are on this Earth. That is final.”

“Stop provoking Batman, Sean,” I said. “I don’t want to have to explain to Carter and Sadie why you didn’t come home in one piece.”

Sean growled like an angry wolf (and, no, I won’t be telling you how I know what an angry wolf sounds like).

“We have to earn our keep somehow,” I told him. “And learning a little hand-to-hand combat won’t kill us.”

As soon as I said that I started praying that I hadn’t jinxed us.

Sean grumbled, but backed off. After playing nice for a few more minutes, he, Iskandar and I Zetaed back to the Hall of Justice to collect our research and transfer everything we needed out to Mount Justice.


	13. Robots Are Annoying

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More Shadowhunters Chronicles references in this chapter.

_The Cave, Mount Justice, Rhode Island_

_July 18, 2010, 11:17 EDT_

“Oh my gods,” Sean said. “I’ve got it.”

“What?” I looked up from the scroll I was slogging through. “Where?”

_‘Eloquent,’_ Khonsu commented. I did what had basically become a reflex during the last few days and ignored him.

Sean pointed at a line in one of the scrolls in front of him. I tried to read it upside down and shook my head. I was useless at Demotic when it was the right way around.

Sean sighed. “We just need to make the portal at the right auspicious time and...Iskandar, do you know who this god is?”

While Iskander was puzzling through an obscure spelling of a god’s name, Wally (i.e. Kid Flash without his costume) came running into the room, said, “RedTornadoishere,” and ran back out again. Sean and I looked at each other.

“Did you catch that?” Sean asked.

I grimaced. “Something about a tomato?”

_‘He said that Red Tornado is here,’_ Khonsu said.

_‘Thank you for being helpful for once,’_ I replied.

_‘What are you talking about? I’m always helpful.’_

I ignored him and told Sean what he had said that Wally said.

“Do you know what’s supposed to happen today?” Sean asked. Because of those _Young Justice_ time jumps that I was talking about, I didn’t know what was going to happen with the team every day, but that didn’t stop Sean from asking. Every. Day.

“Yes,” I finally got to say. I checked that Iskandar was concentrating on his name puzzle before adding, “Robot attack courtesy of T.O. Morrow and Brom Stikk.”

“Because those names aren’t weird at all,” Sean muttered. “Team building?”

“Very,” I confirmed.

“Sit it out?”

“That would be best.”

Of course, that was when Wally and M'gann came and dragged all of us out to join their joyride on the Bio-Ship. Only Toto got left behind, and that was because they were taking a nap behind the TV.

Iskandar was huddled in his seat, muttering to himself and not responding to any of the conversations happening around him. Khonsu translated what he was saying and concluded, with quite a lot of surprise, that the once and future Chief Lector had a fear of flying.

_‘But this ship is awesome,’_ he added. _‘I want one.’_

_‘You want a sentient bioorganic space ship?’_ I asked. _‘Can’t you turn into a falcon?’_

_‘That’s not the same thing,’_ Khonsu whined.

“Hey, how about showing us some Martian shapeshifting?” Robin asked.

M’gann stood up and spun around. Suddenly I was looking at a perfect copy of myself, right down to the scuffs on my shoes. Then her clothes bled from white to black and M’gann became a female version of Robin. Finally, female Kid Flash struck a pose.

“Is it wrong that I think I’m hot?” Wally asked.

Robin applauded. “Impressive, but you’re not going to fool anyone with those last ones.”

M’gann shrugged and sat back down. “It’s harder to mimic boys.”

“You just need more practice,” Sean said, “like Amber does with hieroglyphics.”

“Shut up,” I grumbled.

“What about your clothes?” Kaldur asked.

“They’re like the ship, organic,” M’gann told him. “They respond to my mental commands.”

Superboy turned back towards the front window of the ship. “As long as they’re the only ones.”

So, it appeared that Superboy had still had his (very reasonable, though tactless) explosion at M’gann about telepathy. I guess there are some things that just can’t change.

“You know, I’m pretty sure I mentioned telepathy before,” I said. Superboy just grunted.

The part of the conversation about density shifting and Wally giving himself a bloody nose trying to vibrate through a wall went as expected without any interruptions from me, Sean or Iskandar. Then Red Tornado called in with the emergency alert from the power plant.

“I think I know what caused the alert,” Wally said, pointing out the window at the tornado coming right towards us.

Iskandar wasn’t the only one who screamed as the ship was tossed around by the tornado, but I’m pretty sure he was the loudest. His knuckles were white as he grabbed the sides of his seat. I grimaced at him once M’gann had the ship back under control.

“Are you alright?” I asked.

Iskandar nodded even though he was looking a bit green.

“Stay here,” Sean told him when the ship landed. “We might need back up.”

_‘Is he still back up if he’s airsick?’_ Khonsu laughed.

_‘Can you at least try to be nice?’_ I asked.

_‘Why would I want to do that?’_

Everyone except for Iskandar dropped out of the ship.

“Robin, are tornadoes common to New England?” Kaldur asked.

Robin didn’t answer because he had already pulled one of his famous disappearing acts. We had been on the ground for less than a minute and he was already gone. How does he do that?

“I’m going to guess the answer is no,” Sean muttered while we listened to Robin’s echoing laughter.

“He was just here,” M’gann said with surprise. 

“Let’s go,” Kaldur ordered when the first of the power plant’s windows was blown out.

We ran around the side of the building where there was a big, hanger-style door standing wide open. It was probably where most of the workers had gotten out.

Superboy jumped straight down to the bottom of the stairs and landed next to Robin, who had just been slammed against the wall by the blue and red robot in the middle of the room. M’gann flew after him with the rest of us a few seconds behind.

“Who’s your new friend?” Superboy asked.

Robin sat up. “Didn’t catch his name, but he plays kinda rough.”

“My apologies,” the robot said in a tinny voice, “you may call me Mr. Twister.”

“Aren’t we supposed to be the ones naming the bad guys?” Sean asked.

“That’s in the Arrowverse,” I said.

Kaldur cleared his throat pointedly as Superboy went flying over our heads and hit the wall behind us. Right, DC universes organizing later, fighting robots now.

While the rest of the team went on the attack, Sean and I worked to wrestle control of the wind away from the robot. It didn’t go well. Sean is a water elementalist and I had been doing magic for less than a month. Trying to out-wind power something whose only purpose was to control wind was very, very difficult. Wally went flying out the opposite hanger door and went skidding across the pavement in a way that looked very painful. Then Kaldur and M’gann hit the wall, hard.

Khonsu, of course, was being unhelpful.

_‘Looks like that hurt,’_ he said gleefully when Wally left the building. _‘Turn that back at him! Oh, nice try.’_

“Not the time to tell me to tuck in my shirt!” Sean shouted. I assumed he was talking to Mut.

I managed to grab one of Mr. Twister’s tornados and throw it at his head after one of Robin’s explosives. The next one picked me up, tossed me around, and threw me out the door. I got some pretty impressive air and did not want to try hitting the ground from that height.

“Wind,” I ordered, pointing my staff at the ground. The air pushed back at me, but it was only enough to just barely slow my fall. “Styx! Khonsu, do the bird thing!”

_‘What bird thing?’_ the most annoying god in the world asked.

“You know what bird thing! Falcon form, now!”

_‘I never said I could do that.’_

“You’re in my head, I _know_ you can do it!”

Khonsu sighed. I suddenly felt like my bones were turning into fire. Then I was flying with extended wings that worked much better than flapping arms (not that I was flapping my arms).

_‘Thank you,’_ I said.

_‘You have to figure out how to turn back,’_ Khonsu said.

I turned around and flew back to the power plant, totally not getting distracted by the fact that I could see far enough to read the licence plates of cars hundreds of metres away and hear a squirrel climbing up a tree below me. I definitely didn’t have to tear myself away from hunting once or twice, or half a dozen times.

The storm brewing overhead had me flying faster. I landed between Sean and Kaldur just as Mr. Twister hit Superboy with bolts of lightning and caused him to dig a trench in the dirt with how hard he hit the ground.

“Amber?” Sean groaned. I chirped and bobbed my head. “About time.”

Mr. Twister stopped as he was descending towards us. I assumed that M’gann had just moved the Bio-Ship in front of us and we were now camouflaged.

“Fine, then,” Mr. Twister said. “I won’t deny that you children have power, but playing hide-and-seek with you will not help me achieve my objectives. Stay hidden. If you confront me again I will show you no mercy!”

All of us held our breath as the robot flew away.

“What happened?” Wally asked at last.

“We got our butts kicked,” Sean said. “And I think Amber’s stuck as a falcon.”

I glared at him and concentrated on turning back into a human. What did I have to do? What was it that Carter did the first time he turned into a falcon?

_Remembered what made him human._

I pictured myself. Hair, brown. Eyes, golden brown. Skin, brown, again (at least I’m consistent). Four gold rings in the top of my left ear. Then I pictured my sister. Hair, black. Eyes, black (which I insist on saying even though we both know they’re purple). Skin, white. One tattoo on the back of her neck. It was the third summer that she had gone to Camp Half-Blood, otherwise known as the third summer we’ve ever spent apart, ever.

I hated it.

Sure, we move in different circles, especially now that she knows she’s a demigod, but she was _my_ sister first. Not Ed’s, not Nico’s, not Percy’s, not Jason’s, _mine_.

No, not just mine, each other’s. We used to be the first to know everything about each other. We used to do everything together. I miss that.

(Note in the margins: I didn’t know you felt like that, Ams. You never seemed like you needed me, you know? You were Isabelle Lightwood, beating the world and looking good doing it. I was poor Maureen, a little girl in over her head. I still am in over my head. The demigod stuff? Half the time I’m terrified. Without my friends I’d have been dead a long time ago. I know it’s been almost two years since you’ve written this, but I want to fix things between us. If I survive this war and the world as we know it still exists, we’ll go away somewhere, just the two of us. Promise. Just not Rome. After the Emperors, I don’t think I can take any more Old Rome. Love, Sapphire.)

I focused on us. Summers by the lake, decorating the Christmas tree, baking pies with Dad. And more recent memories like fighting monsters and laughing at Apollo’s poetry together. Little things that made my life mine.

When I opened my eyes I was human. M’gann was sitting on the ground looking totally gutted while Sean tried to console her.

“They were rookies once too, you know,” he said. “You don’t need to prove yourself, you just need time to grow.”

I stood up and walked over to them. “The other guys went after Twister?” I checked.

Sean nodded. “Twister isn’t Red Tornado, by the way.”

M’gann looked up. “That’s it! We’ll call Red Tornado, he’ll know what to do.” She jumped up and flew into the Bio-Ship. Sean and I looked at each other before running after her.

I asked M’gann to fly after the rest of the team so that we could help them when they needed it. She nodded and took off a split second before calling Red Tornado.

“Heh,” Iskandar said as a form of greeting.

“What?” all three of us (plus Red Tornado) asked.

“Heh,” Iskandar repeated. “The needed...The god needed.”


	14. The Last Chapter (Of This Story)

_Happy Harbor, Rhode Island_

_July 18, 2010, 12:00 EDT_

We didn’t have time to celebrate Iskandar figuring out the name of the god we needed to make the portal home. M’gann quickly explained what was going on to Red Tornado and asked him to come help.

“If I intervene it will not be help,” Red Tornado said.

“The guys won’t thank you for it,” I agreed. “What about Twister’s powers? Any tips for dealing with that?”

“I find it strange that this Twister shares my elemental powers,” Red Tornado mused, “and my immunity to telepathy.”

“We could just try harder to make him explode,” Sean suggested. “Magic and technology don’t mix well.”

M’gann tapped the heel of her hand to her forehead. “Hello, Megan. I know what to do.”

M’gann sped up the Bio-Ship while she explained her plan.

Sean nodded. “We’ll follow your lead.”

M’gann smiled nervously and opened up a telepathic link between us and the rest of the team. _‘Listen to me, all of you.’_

_‘Woah,’_ Khonsu said. _‘That’s cool.’_

_‘Shut up, Khonsu,’_ I said. _‘M’gann is talking.’_

_‘What did we tell you?’_ Superboy growled at M’gann.

_‘I know I messed up,’_ M’gann said, _‘but I know what to do now. I need you to trust me.’_

She quickly went over her plan again.

_‘We trust you,’_ Kaldur said. _‘Be careful.’_

_‘You too,’_ M’gann said.

_‘Careful?’_ Wally chucked. _‘We don’t know the meaning of the word.’_

_‘I find that troubling,’_ a woman said.

_‘Shut up, Mut,’_ Sean said.

M’gann landed the camouflaged ship several meters from the battleground. “You’re sure your magic will work from here?”

Sean nodded. “We just have to send Kid Flash in the right direction, it’ll work.”

After shapeshifting into a perfect copy of Red Tornado (I guess robots didn’t fall under the category of boys), M’gann flew out of the ship and went to distract Mr. Twister. Sean and I jumped out and stood under the ship so that our magic wouldn’t be disrupted by being surrounded with an organic space ship. Seconds later, Wally appeared beside us.

“You ready?” I asked.

Wally adjusted his goggles. “Born ready.”

Sean and I summoned gusts of wind that we sent flying after Wally as he ran back towards M’gann. He used them to kick start the first tornado that M’gann appeared to create before running over a few feet and creating a second one.

Sean and I took control of the first tornado and sent it clashing with the tornado that Mr. Twister had created. It took both of us working together to fight on even footing with the robot. Wally’s tornado came at Mr. Twister from the side and just missed catching him off guard.

“That’s us done,” I said when Mr. Twister punched the ground and sent M’gann tumbling head over heels. “We’d better start heading over.”

Sean had his hands on his knees, panting. “Give me a minute,” he gasped. “How are you not tired?”

_‘Because she’s drawing on my power,’_ Khonsu grumbled.

_‘Sorry?’_ I said.

_‘Just give me some warning next time so I can put a cap on how much you use. It would be annoying if you burned up.’_

_‘Thanks,’_ I said flatly.

We watched while M’gann and Superboy punted Mr. Twister into the bay, where Kaldur was waiting under the water to hit the robot with an electric shock. By the time M’gann had starting ripping off Mr. Twister’s limbs, Sean had recovered enough for us to go join the rest of the team.

Mr. Twister’s chest opened and what appeared to be a man came tumbling out. “Foul. I call foul,” he stuttered.

M’gann telekinetically picked up a nearby bolder and dropped it on him.

“M’gann, no!” Kaldur shouted, too late. We stared in stunned silence. A small part of me worried that the robot that should have been inside Mr. Twister had been replaced with an actual person.

“Don’t know how things are done on Mars, but on Earth we don’t kill our captives!” Robin yelled.

M’gann smirked. “You said you trust me.” She lifted the bolder to reveal the crushed electronic guts beneath it. “This is why I couldn’t read his mind.”

Wally picked up one of the robot’s eyes. “Cool. Souvenir.” The other guys complemented M’gann and she smiled. 

I looked at Sean and then nodded towards the robot remains. We raised our wands. Maybe it was because the robots had been mostly destroyed, but only a pulse of magic was required to make the electronics send up sparks. The faint red glow in the remaining eye of the crushed robot died. T.O. Morrow and Brom Stikk were no longer spying on us, and hopefully any tracking devices in the robot parts had been fried too.

“Back to base,” Wally asked, “or should we help with the clean up?”

“Sean and I can come back later and put some houses back together,” I said. “Right now, we’re out of power.”

M’gann levitated all the dismembered parts of both robots. “We should take this back with us, right?”

“Correct.” Kaldur nodded.

We made our way back to Mount Justice, Iskandar looking much less green than the first time around, and unloaded the robots for Red Tornado to look at.

“So, what are we going to do?” I whispered to Sean while the rest of the team was talking.

“With what?” Sean asked.

I rolled my eyes. “Getting home, idiot.”

“We figure out who Heh is and when he was born, then make the portal,” Sean said.

“Because that’s going to be as easy as you make it sound,” I muttered. “Come on, we’d better rescue Iskandar before M’gann talks him to death.”

M’gann, who had started asking Iskandar questions about the Egypt he had lived in as soon as the former sidekicks and Superboy left the room, volunteered to help us research Heh. She was the one who found some of his other names (Huh and Hah being two of them, which made me ask if he was the god of questions) and a list of numbers that used his hieroglyphic to represent one million.

“Water,” Iskandar said eventually. “No...flood?”

Sean looked over at the book Iskandar was reading. “Sea,” he said. “The Sea of Chaos. Our guy is really, really old.”

“Hang on.” I pointed at a picture of a god in the book I was looking at. “Is this him? He’s got a—what do you call it?— _shen_ ring thing on either side of him. Don’t those mean eternity?”

Sean turned the book towards him and looked at the picture. “Yeah, they do. I saw this somewhere.” He dove into the honeycomb shelves holding the few books we weren’t looking through and came out with a huge scroll that he then rolled out on the table on top of all the other books and scrolls we had open until he reached an entry in the middle. “Heh, god of eternity, personification of infinity, probably existed before the creation of all the worlds.”

I sighed. “We’re not going to be able to figure out when he was born, are we?”

Sean shook his head. “Doesn’t look like it.” 

We stared at the scroll in silence.

“Styx,” I said.

At the same time, M’gann said, “Why don’t we all get some sleep? It’ll look better in the morning.”

“Yeah, maybe I can have another _ba_ dream and let my sister know that we _are_ stuck on Earth-16,” I muttered.

Sean’s eyes lit up. He swept the giant scroll aside and began frantically searching through several smaller ones. “Ah hah!” He looked up from the half a dozen scrolls he was surrounded by. “The Duat connects everything, even different worlds. The portal that brought us here must have gone through a place where this world’s Duat overlapped with our world’s Duat.”

“So we just have to go back to Cadmus and make a portal there?” I asked.

Sean shook his head. “No, that overlap will have moved by now. What we need is a way to go deep into the Duat and find an overlap that goes to our Earth.”

Iskandar frowned. “Dangerous. You die.”

That was definitely encouraging. Not.

“We would need something like the sun boat,” I said. “Those kinds of things aren’t just left lying around.”

“Your _ba_ dream,” Sean asked, “what did you see?”

I shrugged. “The river Styx, lots of bones, dead girls, my sister.” I thought for a moment. “A guy in white with a green...jewel...Oh my gods. I’m an idiot.”

_‘Glad you’ve figured that out,’_ Khonsu said with a grin.

“Shut up, Khonsu. Sean, Iskandar, is there an Egyptian god of dreams?”

Sean and Iskandar looked at each other. Iskandar shrugged and shook his head. “Not that I know of,” Sean said. “Why?”

“That’s fine, that’s fine,” I muttered. “Actually, he probably wouldn’t have responded anyway, he’s not the old one.”

“Do you know what she’s talking about?” M’gann asked. Sean and Iskandar shook their heads.

I stood up and started pacing across the stone floor. “What’s his name? What is his name? Come on, remember.”

_‘Moses?’_ Khonsu suggested. _‘James? Harry? David?’_

I snapped my fingers. “Not David, Daniel! Daniel...”

_‘Carter?’_

“Hall!” I exclaimed.

“Where are you going with this?” Sean asked.

“The Endless,” I said. “The Endless exist everywhere, just like the Duat. They can go anywhere, that’s why I could share a dream with Sapphire even though we’re on different Earths.”

Sean made a confused face. “How does that help us?”

“Hello, Megan.” M’gann smiled. “You’re going to ask them for help.”

I nodded. “Well, not all of them. Dream is one of the less likely to kill us ones.”

“Don’t we have enough gods here?” Sean asked, pointing to his head.

“The Endless aren’t gods,” I explained. “They’re older than gods. I wouldn’t be surprised if one of them was Heh.”

Sean and Iskandar weren’t exactly excited to try to get help from beings older and more powerful than gods, but they came around when I told them that the Dream that existed now had been human pretty recently. M’gann wasn’t worried at all, but that was probably because she didn’t have much experience with gods.

“Do we need a summoning circle or something like that?” Sean asked. “I don’t think there’s enough room in here.”

The room we were in was mostly taken up by the huge table Sean had insisted on when we were moving the books to Mount Justice. There was just enough room around the edge to move shoulder-to-shoulder with someone else without scraping up against the walls and not much else.

“That would be rude,” I said. “Plus, the old Dream got trapped in a circle for decades so...”

“No circle,” Sean agreed.

“I could make cookies,” M’gann suggested.

I didn’t think that would help.

“I’ve got an easier idea.” I cleared my throat. “Dream? Daniel Hall? May we speak to you?”

**_“You may.”_ **

I spun around. Chairs scraped against the floor as everyone else shot out of their seats.

M’gann gasped. “Lord L'Zoril!”

The man in white from my _ba_ travel dream looked over my shoulder and nodded to her. **_“Young Martian. Please, stand.”_**

I heard scrambling as, I assume, M’gann stood back up after dropping to her knees.

“Dream?” I asked.

The man in white looked at me. The green jewel around his neck and his black eye sockets glinted. **_“Amber Sara Banks,”_** he said slowly. Every syllable of my name rang with something that I could feel in my chest, like the bass in loud music.

I bowed my head. “My lord.”

**_“Why have you called me?”_ **

I was pretty sure that he already knew why we had called him, but in the interest of not getting smote (which is the past tense of “smite”, apparently) I babbled a summary of the conversation leading up to having Dream of the Endless standing in Mount Justice.

“So, we were, I was hoping that you might be able to help me and Sean get home,” I finished.

Dream hadn’t taken his eyes off of me since I started speaking. A star shone in each of them, looking like the mischievous glint I had once seen in Hermes’s eyes. **_“But why do you wish to leave? Isn’t this world everything you’ve ever dreamed of?”_**

I swallowed. “I have dreamed of it, my lord,” I admitted, “but I’ve always woken up. My family isn’t here, or my friends. My sister is getting married. I still have to graduate high school. Sean’s going to become an awesome water elemantalist. Our lives aren’t here.”

It was probably my imagination, but I saw a smile flicker over Dream’s face before he looked over my head and said something in Alexandrian Greek. I looked at Iskandar, who was shaking his head. He said many words in Alexandrian Greek and then one word in English, “Home.”

Dream definitely smiled then. He spoke with Sean in a language I assume was Irish Gaelic before turning back to me. **_“I will send you home, and say your goodbyes. As Toto has become attached to Superboy, they would prefer to stay here.”_**

Toto had flown at Superboy when we got back and hadn’t been more than a foot away from him since.

“Do you mean right now?” I asked. Dream nodded.

I turned around and gave M’gann a hug. “Good luck with the superhero thing. You’re gonna do great.”

M’gann smiled. “Thanks. Good luck with the magician thing.”

I found myself giving Iskandar a hug too. He would do well on Earth-16 with the Justice League. There were already so many people there who were from a different planet or Earth or time that once he didn’t have to help us anymore there would be plenty of people to help him adjust to the modern era.

“I am your friend,” Iskandar said slowly. “Always.”

I smiled at him. “Thank you.”

I looked at Sean and then turned back to Dream. “We’re ready.”

**_“Not yet. Mut, Khonsu, you must leave first.”_ **

_‘Aw man,’_ Khonsu complained. _‘You know I like you, right?’_

_‘And I don’t entirely hate you,’_ I told him.

I saw Khonsu smiling in my mind. _‘Good to hear that. Hey, maybe I’ll go find a kid who wants to be a superhero and get them to be my host. Then we could come back here. What do you think?’_

I mentally rolled my eyes. _‘Just don’t burn them up.’_

_‘Cool.’_

I felt Khonsu leaving my body. It was a drain that ended with a kick in the gut. I stumbled and grabbed the edge of the table. I wasn’t aware of closing my eyes, but when I opened them I saw that Sean had a look on his face like he was trying not to cry.

“I guess now we’re ready,” I said softly.

Dream nodded.

With a snap of his fingers, the world turned inside out and upside down. It was so much worse than a portal or shadow travel. I didn’t even notice when it stopped because I was too busy trying to stop my head from spinning off of my neck.

“Amber!”

A bulldozer named Sapphire Banks collided with me and tried to break all of my ribs.

“Saph, air,” I gasped.

Sapphire released me from her hug and allowed me to breath. I looked around. There were three bunk beds against the wall to my left, though only two of the bunks appeared to be in use, and behind Sapphire there was a fireplace filled with black flames. Actually, pretty much everything in the room was black. I assumed that we were in the Hades cabin at Camp Half-Blood.

“How did you get here?” Sapphire asked. “Did the portal work? Is there a really big time difference between here and the world you were in?”

I held up a hand to stop her from babbling. “Let’s make sure Sean got back to Brooklyn House safely first. Then I’ve got a story to tell you.”

* * *

The End


End file.
